By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – All six Republican candidates participated in a single debate Thursday, June 2, and for the most part, candidates aimed criticisms at the man who has recently had a slight polling lead, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

Darren Bailey, a state senator from Xenia best known for challenging Gov. JB Pritzker’s COVID-19 executive orders in court, repeated claims about “pay to play” politics in Irvin’s Aurora that have shown up in attack ads.

“I’m not interested in defeating you just because you’re a Democrat,” Bailey, who polling has shown trailing Irvin by about five points, said. “I’m interested in defeating you because you are a corrupt Democrat.”

Irvin responded with attack ad fodder of his own, saying that Bailey had a mask mandate on his Bailey Family Farm, which, Irvin said, “bussed in” workers from other countries.

The Bailey Family Farm hired migrant workers in 2021 and required masks for some employees, according to an April report from WTTW-TV in Chicago. The Bailey attack on Irvin was based on 2018 reporting from the Aurora Beacon-News that was headlined, “Donors that gave thousands to Aurora mayor get high-profile projects.”

While Irvin again said it would be “irresponsible” to comment on a leaked Supreme Court decision that could overturn the abortion precedent Roe v. Wade – mirroring almost identically several previous exchanges with reporters – other candidates outlined more hardline anti-abortion stances.

When given an opportunity at a rebuttal on the abortion topic, Irvin went into a talking point about handouts.

“I know many of my opponents here on the stage are attacking me and I understand. I get it, you know, they’re threatened by the fact that I’m violating their political aspirations and I’m hurting their political aspirations,” Irvin said.

As he talked about handouts, candidate Gary Rabine, founder of a suburban paving company, interjected that Irvin wouldn’t answer the question. Bailey called Irvin a “great impostor.”

At another point, Bailey and Rabine, talking over each other, argued about which man had done more to oppose COVID-19 mandates. Bailey then talked over former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, who said he supported Bailey’s initial lawsuits against COVID-19 mandates in Clay County.

Bailey sued claiming the governor exceeded his authority in issuing stay-at-home orders and had an initial win in Clay County before that ruling was overturned in a Sangamon County appellate court.

Bailey later went as far to say that “the worst thing” for Illinois, rather than another Pritzker term, “would be to have the wrong Republican in office.”

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CAMPAIGN FUNDING: The tension between the Republican candidates for governor at a recent debate was not surprising, considering the tens of millions of dollars being funneled into attack ads across all media, mainly by three of the state’s wealthiest men – Gov. JB Pritzker, Ken Griffin and Richard Uihlein.

This week, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin reported another $5 million received from Griffin, a GOP megadonor and founder of the hedge fund Citadel, bringing his total received from Griffin to $50 million.

Bailey, meanwhile, reported another $3 million from Uihlein, another megadonor and founder of the shipping supply company Uline, bringing his total received from Uihlein to more than $9 million. Uihlein has also donated over $8 million to the People Who Play by the Rules political action committee, which has funded advertising against Irvin as well.

Pritzker, meanwhile, has given his campaign $125 million since March 2021, having invested more than $300 million in the JB for Governor committee since he announced his run in 2018.

Former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, who was recently polling in single digits but received the endorsement of the Chicago Tribune, criticized Irvin’s use of his mega millions to attack the field.

“Folks, stuff never seems to change in Illinois. The candidates come and go, but things stay the same,” he said. “And that’s because it’s the same megadonors, the same political operatives, it’s the same special interest groups. I’m not beholden to any of those.”

Jesse Sullivan, a Petersburg venture capitalist who participated remotely due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, said Irvin’s “only strength” was “a whole lot of money.”

Spending tracking numbers shared by the Irvin campaign showed his campaign has spent $14.3 million as of the end of May, while Bailey has spent $4.6 million and Petersburg venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan has spent about $2 million.

The People Who Play by the Rules PAC, meanwhile, has spent about $3.2 million and the Democratic Governors Association has spent over $9 million, according to the Irvin campaign analysis. The DGA, which has received money from Pritzker in the past, has funded ads attacking Irvin and touting Bailey’s record as “too conservative.”

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PRITZKER DONATION: Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin counted among his donations a $4,150 sum from Jennifer Pritzker, a cousin to the governor and retired lieutenant colonel from the Illinois Army National Guard. She previously donated $800,000 to a group opposing the governor’s favored graduated tax amendment and was a funder of ex-Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign in 2014, but not his reelection campaign against Pritzker.

She also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign but financially backed Biden to a lesser scale in 2020.

Both Pritzkers inherited their wealth from their family, which founded the Hyatt hotel chain.

Pritzker was asked about Jennifer, who is transgender, at an unrelated news conference regarding LGBTQ equity, saying he was proud to stand up and support her.

“Even though she is a Republican and has been her whole life and continues to be a Republican, she also has really good heart and is someone who cares deeply about the people of this city and the people of this state,” he said.  

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SEXUAL ASSAULT EVIDENCE: The Illinois State Police announced Friday, June 3, that all sexual assault evidence is being processed within the 180-day timeframe outlined in state law – bringing to zero the number of legally “backlogged” cases that rose as high as 1,815 in March 2019.

It’s the first time all such evidence is being processed within 180 days as required by a 2010 law, according to the governor’s office.  

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said at a news conference that ISP would work to bring that number down to 90 days.

Pritzker joined Kelly and local elected officials in Belleville, where ISP is establishing the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Institute to house a portion of the ISP forensic science training program.

The governor’s office said over the past two years, ISP reduced its total forensic backlog by 72 percent, while the backlog in drug chemistry evidence processing decreased by 90 percent from Feb. 2019 to the end of 2021.

Carrie Ward, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, praised “significant progress” from ISP.

She said when ICASA first became part of a task force addressing the backlogs, “the horror stories of evidence collection backlogs were numerous.”

“Kits were found untested across the state. The wait time for results from kits that were tested stretched into years instead of months or weeks,” she said. “Today we can acknowledge substantial progress.”

“But our work here isn’t done,” she added. “We must continue to address the barriers both internal and external that prompt us to recognize six months, or 180 days, as cause for celebration, because six months is still a long time for survivors to wait. We cannot be complacent with our progress.”

The Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure plan signed in 2019 included $76.6 million for a new combined crime laboratory and administrative facility in Joliet. This year’s budget also included $5.4 million for increased staffing and equipment at a new ISP forensic lab in Decatur.

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HIGHWAY CAMERAS: On Friday, June 3, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a pair of bills that expand the state’s highway camera monitoring program.

House Bill 4481 expands a Cook County roadway camera pilot program to state highways and expressways in the counties of Boone, Bureau, Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Henry, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Macon, Madison, McHenry, Morgan, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Will and Winnebago.

Previously, ISP received a $12.5 million grant to bring the number of cameras on Chicago expressways to 300, starting on the Dan Ryan expressway.

While an added 6,300 miles of roadway – on top of about 230 miles in the pilot program – will be eligible for cameras under the expanded program, the new legislation contains no guidance for which roadways would receive them.  

The budget contains $20 million from the Road Fund for the expansion.

House Bill 260 allows police to use camera footage to also investigate hijacking and forcible felonies such as murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping and aggravated battery.

Previous law only allowed the footage to be used to investigate firearm offenses and to monitor roadway conditions.

The expansion also gives the attorney general’s office authority to prosecute forcible felony, gunrunning and firearms offenses on camera-monitored expressways.

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HATE CRIME LAWSUIT: For the first time since lawmakers expanded the state’s hate crime law in 2018, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is launching a civil lawsuit against two Illinoisans for allegedly engaging in hate crimes.

The lawsuit says two residents of Carroll County in northwest Illinois lynched an effigy of their neighbor, who is Black, to intimidate him. Cheryl Hampton and her adult son, Chad Hampton, both white, also allegedly displayed a Confederate flag and a racial slur in a window facing their neighbor Gregory Johnson’s home.

Raoul’s complaint argued the effigy was used “as a threat of racial violence against Johnson, because he contacted law enforcement about the Hamptons” stemming from a dispute about damage to Johnson’s lawn.

The attorney general’s complaint includes two counts each against Cheryl and Chad Hampton for intimidation and disorderly conduct as part of a hate crime, seeking a $25,000 maximum fine under state law for each count.

Each count also seeks a prohibition on the Hamptons from contacting Johnson or participating in any damage to his property or other violations of Illinois hate crime laws.

The complaint details a history dating back to July 2020, when Johnson notified police in the city of Savanna that a fence on his property was damaged after Cheryl Hampton had threatened to tear it down.

Johnson again contacted police after witnessing Chad Hampton “purposely” spray weed killer on Johnson’s lawn, damaging the grass. Chad Hampton was charged with a misdemeanor for damage to property, and in September 2020 he allegedly painted swastikas on his garage facing Johnson’s house.

Court records show the criminal damage to property case is still pending.

Police returned to tell Hampton to remove the swastikas in September 2020, and by October 2020, the effigy of Johnson was hung from the Hamptons’ tree.

“The life-size effigy resembled Johnson by design,” the complaint stated. “The head consisted of a mask intentionally painted black and a curly wig altered to resemble Johnson’s hair.”

Savanna police returned to the Hampton home and, according to the report, Cheryl Hampton “openly admitted” she hung the effigy to target Johnson because she was “tired” of Johnson complaining about “everything she and her son did.”

After a visit from police and the town’s mayor, she refused to move or alter the effigy, so police took custody of it and charged Cheryl Hampton with a felony for intimidation of a witness. Court documents show that case is still pending.

The Hamptons rented the property in question and no longer resided there as of the filing of the lawsuit, according to the complaint.

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PARENTAL NOTICE: Doctors in Illinois may now perform abortions on minors without notifying the child’s parents or obtaining a judicial bypass of the notification requirement.

That’s because a bill passed by the General Assembly during last year’s fall veto session and signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker repealing the state’s 1995 parental notification requirement officially took effect Wednesday, June 1.

That development came as the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to overturn its landmark 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, and as the debate over abortion rights has become a central issue in this year’s elections.

House Bill 370 passed the General Assembly in October despite opposition from some Democrats. It creates the Youth Health and Safety Act which, among other things, declares it to be public policy in Illinois that residents and people coming into the state should have access to reproductive health care, free of unnecessary barriers or bans on particular procedures.

It also repeals the 1995 Parental Notice of Abortion law, which did not go into effect until 2013 due to prolonged litigation.

Supporters of repealing the law argued that it imposed an undue burden on young pregnant women, especially those who became pregnant through rape or incest, while opponents argued that the notification requirement protected a parent’s right to guide their child’s health care.

Those same arguments were reiterated Wednesday as groups on both sides of the issue reacted to the new law taking effect.

“It is a grave injustice that the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Pritzker repealed this law,” the Catholic Conference of Illinois said in a statement Wednesday. “The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was a broadly-supported, reasonable safeguard that allowed Illinois’ parents to properly exercise love and care for their children.”

But the ACLU of Illinois, which lobbied in favor of the repeal, said the new law gives young people more autonomy over their own health care.

“Prior to today, pregnant young people could make any medical decision without barriers except abortion. Now thankfully they have the same right to make a confidential decision about their health care as everyone else,” Emily Werth, staff attorney at the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement. “Today abortion is treated just like all other forms of health care in this state.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.